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Hawkwood: A gathering of community asset leaders and the birth of a new peer network

  • Writer: Mycelial Network News
    Mycelial Network News
  • Dec 4, 2023
  • 3 min read

Updated: May 2



In September 2023, 25 experienced community asset developers from across England gathered at the beautiful Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking for 36 hours. 


Why? To build relationships and solidarity, help shape what comes next for the community assets movement, and sow the seeds for an emergent peer network. 


The gathering was co-convened by Platform Places and Power to Change trustees.


We co-created our manifesto and missions, and also agreed some organising principles that would guide how we move forward:


  • We organise around the above ‘missions’, which we adapt as we test & learn 

  • We focus on practical action 

  • We pay ourselves for our time spent delivering the missions – and we pay someone to organise us to invite & sustain our collective attention

  • We act like mycelium – we give & receive according to needs & capacity

  • We take care of each other & our capacity – we host ‘design sprint’ days not ongoing Zoom calls, & we participate in what’s most relevant to us

  • We proactively design out (rather than perpetuate) structural issues eg. lack of diversity in leadership

  • We have porous boundaries – we connect with adjacent movements (such as We’re Right Here, Community Land Trust Network, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and New Constellations, among others).


Get involved


We're currently raising and accepting funds to be able to continue to organise and implement these missions – so if you're excited to read any of this, see opportunities for collaborations and/or want to participate, please get in touch!


What would be on your mycelium-inspired manifesto…?


Appreciation


Thank you to Power to Change for funding the residential gathering. 


Thank you to Hawkwood Centre For Future Thinking for hosting us beautifully. 


Thank you to Bryan from Visual Thinkery for the joyful illustrations.


The mycelial metaphor that ran throughout the gathering was inspired by the work of New Constellations – whose deep research into fungal networks helped us think about how our own ecosystems might be more mycelial in nature.


Thank you to every community asset leader who attended, representing organisations and movements including: 



This blog post was originally published on the Platform Places website.


 
 
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